Jeffrey Graessley

Now that we’ve had some time to go through the basics of editing, outlining, and word choice, let’s switch gears a bit and take a closer look at our sentences. In particular, we’ll discuss the nature of both the long and short sentence, and try to identify some opportunities to utilize each. Quick aside, there are many schools of thought when it comes to this topic, especially when academic writing gets dragged into the muck. There isn’t a one-size fits all style of writing, each assignment wil

Landing on the right word, in any writing assignment, is fulfilling (we’ve all had that feeling), but what about all the other words? Today, we’ll take a deep-dive into word variation and choice, looking at some insights and examples that will get our writing to a place where those right-word feelings are more and more common. As this topic plays quite well with our previous updates, now would be an excellent time to go back for a quick refresher on both outlining and editing. Word choice and

It’s a widely held misconception that strong writers are by default strong editors. This is simply not the case. In reality, a strong writer will make fewer mistakes and only create the appearance of a capable editor. It’d be wonderful if there was a 1:1 ratio for writing and editing skill improvements, but in fact we’ll need to learn and practice this with intention… just as we had to learn and practice everything else. These quick mental break also offers the added benefit of changing our foc

The worst thing a new writer can do is fail to read. From creative types with lines filling the margins of every notebook to public relations executives trying to put out any number of potential fires. The writer is only as good as their habits, and without fail, every effective writer first begins as a strong reader. Unfortunately, not everyone is going to have a passion for reading, but that doesn’t excuse us from establishing a baseline, just something to feed our curiosity. What better way